The Richmond Birdwing is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of birdwing

Birdwing

Birdwings are papilionid butterflies native to the Indian Subcontinent, mainland and archipelagic Southeast Asia and Australasia, and are usually regarded as belonging to three genera: Ornithoptera, Trogonoptera and Troides. Some authorities include additional genera...

 butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 that is endemic to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is the second smallest of the birdwing species, the smallest being Ornithoptera meridionalis

Ornithoptera meridionalis

Ornithoptera meridionalis is the smallest species of the genus Ornithoptera. It is known from a handful of localities in southeast Papua, New Guinea and several localities along the south coast of Irian Jaya .O...

.

Distribution

Historically, O. richmondia is recorded from rainforests southwards from Maryborough

Maryborough, Queensland

Maryborough is a city located on the Mary River in South East Queensland, Australia, approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city is serviced by the Bruce Highway, and has a population of approximately 22,000 . It is closely tied to its neighbour city Hervey Bay which is...

 to the Clarence River

Clarence River (New South Wales)

The Clarence River is situated in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. The river originates on the watershed that marks the Queensland border. After flowing south and northeast for 394 km it then empties into the Pacific Ocean at Iluka/Yamba. On its journey it passes through the towns of...

 in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Due to widespread habitat loss throughout its range, its distribution is much more restricted, especially in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. Its present day range is from Kin Kin

Kin Kin, Queensland

Kin Kin is a village that lies between Pomona to the south, and Gympie to the north, Queensland, Australia.The name comes from the Aboriginal kauin kauin meaning red soil, another source suggests it is the indigenous name for a species of small black ants that inhabit the area...

 and Pomona

Pomona, Queensland

Pomona is a town located at the base of Mount Cooroora at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. The town was originally called Pinbarren siding and was renamed Pomona in 1906, after the Roman goddess of fruit and orchards...

, North Arm

North Arm, Queensland

North Arm is a suburb on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.-External links:*...

, Yandina

Yandina, Queensland

Yandina is a Sunshine Coast hinterland town just off the Bruce Highway. Its name comes from 'yan', meaning "to go", and 'dinna', meaning "feet". At the 2006 census, Yandina had a population of 1,075....

, Coolum (although this population is now extinct due to drought), Parklands

Parklands, Queensland

Parklands is a suburb in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, located adjacent to and north of the larger town of Nambour.A large section of bushland in Parklands has been set aside for recreational use and is very popular for mountainbiking, with a number of defined and marked trails....

 and Nambour

Nambour, Queensland

The area now known as Nambour, was first settled in 1870. The town was then called Petrie's Creek. In 1890 the Maroochy Divisional Board was established...

, Diddillibah

Diddillibah, Queensland

Diddillibah is a suburb of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Its name comes from a local Aboriginal word dhilla, which means “coarse grass” or “carpet snake” and ba, which means “place.”Nick Newth the famous actor, who actualy lives and works in france, had lived in Diddilibah. We also...

, Buderim, Eudlo

Eudlo, Queensland

Eudlo is a small hinterland town on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The name originated from the fresh water eel. At the 2006 census, Eudlo had a population of 852.-External links:**...

, Palmwoods

Palmwoods, Queensland

Palmwoods is a town in Queensland, Australia, situated near Nambour. At the 2006 census, Palmwoods had a population of 3,576.The small town was previously named 'Merriman Flats' in 1881 by the Kuskopfs who were part of the first White settlers in the area. It was later renamed Palmwoods after the...

, the Mooloolah and Diamond Valleys, the entire Blackall Range

Blackall Range

The Blackall Range is a mountain range in South East Queensland, Australia. The first European explorer in the area was Ludwig Leichhardt. It was named after Samuel Blackall, the second Governor of Queensland....

 southeast from Kenilworth

Kenilworth, Queensland

Kenilworth is a small town in the upper Mary Valley area of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. This is a rural area, about 50 km from the coast, with dairy farming as the major industry. Local visitor attractions include a cheese factory and art galleries as well as walking, camping...

 to the state forest near the Caloundra Turnoff and west to Peachester

Peachester, Queensland

Peachester is a small town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Peachester had a population of 452.-External links:*...

 and the Stanley River

Stanley River

Stanley River could be any of the following:* Stanley River — a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand.* Stanley River — a river in Queensland, Australia, main tributary of the Brisbane River...

, and the Conondale Range

Conondale Range

The Conondale Range is a mountain range in Queensland, located between Maleny, Kenilworth, Kilcoy and Jimna. The range is the most westerly part of the Sunshine Coast hinterland and part of the Great Dividing Range. The highest point on the range is Mount Langley reaching 868 m above sea level...

 southwards to Mount Mee

Mount Mee, Queensland

Mount Mee is a suburb and mountain in Queensland, Australia, located north of the town of Dayboro on the D'Aguilar Range.-History:The area around Mount Mee was known to the indigenous inhabitants of the area as Dahmongah, a word meaning "flying squirrel" or glider...

.

South of Brisbane, the species is recorded along the Nerang River

Nerang River

The Nerang River is a river that begins in the McPherson Range in the Gold Coast hinterland and runs through Gold Coast City in South East Queensland, Australia...

 and the Tallebudgera Valleys and has an important stronghold in the national parks adjacent to the Queensland-New South Wales border. In New South Wales, the species is widespread in rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

 southwards to the Blackwall Range near Wardell

Wardell, New South Wales

Wardell is a village in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Richmond River and the Pacific Highway between Broadwater and Ballina. Wardell is approximately north of Sydney and south of Brisbane...

 and the Cherry Tree State Forest near Mallangangee (Braby 2000, Sands & New 2002, Sands & Scott 1997). Note that although the species may be abundant at altitude (e.g. the QLD-NSW border ranges national parks), these populations typically die out due to cold winter temperatures and require migration of adults from the lowlands for persistence. Population sizes in these habitats therefore vary from year to year.

A recommended viewing locality for this species is the car park at the base of the summit trail to Mount Warning

Mount Warning

Mount Warning is a mountain west-south-west of Murwillumbah, near the border with Queensland in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia...

 in Mount Warning National Park

Mount Warning National Park

Mount Warning National Park is a park in northern New South Wales, Australia, 642 km north of Sydney near the border with the state of Queensland. It surrounds Mount Warning, part of a remnant caldera of a much larger extinct volcano . The park is administered by the NSW National Parks and...

, New South Wales. Given good weather during their flight period, sighting this butterfly is almost a certainty.

Abundance and conservation status

O. richmondia has never received an official IUCN classification (Collins & Morris, 1985), however Sands & Scott (1997) regarded it to satisfy the "Vulnerable" category because of habitat loss across its former range. Currently, it is considered not of concern in New South Wales and Low Risk (least concern) in Queensland (Sands & New, 2002). This species was previously more abundant than it is now, especially in Queensland, with Illidge (1927) noting the species to be common in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 City in the early 1900s.

North of Brisbane, the species is now restricted to small patches of remnant rainforest with relatively few populations secure in National Park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

s or forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 reserves; strongholds include the Connondale and Blackall Ranges. Ornithoptera richmondia is more abundant south of the Nerang River, especially in Lamington National Park and the associated border ranges. Threatening processes for this species are habitat loss and several previously robust populations near Buderim now locally extinct due to habitat destruction for housing and commercial development, other habitat clearing activities and edge effects, which alter the climatic conditions required for the immature stages of this species to successfully develop. Another threatening process is the non-native environmental weed Aristolochia elegans, or Dutchman's Pipevine (see below).

In recent years, retired CSIRO entomologist D.P.A. Sands has led a series of recovery projects for O. richmondia. The first was largely run in association with the CSIRO's Double Helix school program (Sands and Scott 1997) and focused on planting Pararistolochia pravenosa, in schools and conservation reserves. The current recovery programme is run through the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Recovery Network, which aims to establish corridors between existing populations and assist existing populations by planting hostplants, maintain previous plantings of hostplants, propagate further vines for future planting and continue education and public awareness through seminars and newsletters. Both campaigns have been extremely successful in establishing the Richmond Birdwing as a flagship species for rainforest conservation in south-eastern Queensland (Sands & Scott, 1997).

Host plants and larval biology

O. richmondia normally feeds only on two endemic species of the Aristolochiaceae family, Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Vine (Pararistolochia praevenosa

Pararistolochia praevenosa

Pararistolochia praevenosa is an Australian vine in the Birthwort family. The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Vine grows in subtropical rainforest in coastal areas north from Wollongbar, in far north eastern New South Wales and adjacent areas in south eastern Queensland. It has been recorded as far...

) in lowland habitats and Pararistolochia laheyana in highland habitats (e.g. the QLD-NSW border range national parks above 800m) (Braby 2000, Sands and Scott 1997). Its sole non-native host plant is Aristolochia tagala

Aristolochia tagala

Aristolochia tagala is commonly known as Indian birthwort and locally as Dutchman's pipe.-Distribution:It is widely distributed: the distribution is from the Himalaya to Sri Lanka through South East Asia and China, to Oceania...

, although larvae do not transfer well to this species if already established on their usual hostplants. Eggs are also laid on the introduced Calico Flower (Aristolochia elegans), however larvae are killed by feeding on this plant. Cultivation and sale of A. elegans is strongly discouraged throughout the range of the Richmond Birdwing and should not be grown in Queensland at any rate, as it is also toxic to the larvae of the Clearwing Swallowtail (Cressida cressida

Cressida cressida

The Clearwing Swallowtail or Big Greasy, Cressida cressida, is a medium-sized swallowtail butterfly found in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It is not a threatened species.-Description:...

), the Red-Bodied Swallowtail (Pachliopta polydorus queenslandicus) and all other Australian Birdwings (O. euphorion, O. priamus

Ornithoptera priamus

Ornithoptera priamus, commonly known as the common green birdwing, Cape York Birdwing, Priam's Birdwing or Northern Birdwing, is a widespread species of birdwing butterfly found in the central and south Moluccas, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and northeast...

ssp.). The two species of Pararistolochia utilised by O. richmondia are believed to contain aristolic acids toxic to vertebrate predators.

The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of O. richmondia require relatively specialist environmental conditions for their survival and this is one reason why the species does not establish permanently in home gardens. Eggs are usually laid on the soft foliage of leaders extending into the canopy and emerge within about one week

Week

A week is a time unit equal to seven days.The English word week continues an Old English wice, ultimately from a Common Germanic , from a root "turn, move, change"...

. The newly emerged larvae devour their eggshell and then require very soft foliage, as they are incapable of feeding on older, tough foliage. The larvae are extremely ravenous and require large plants; a 10 year-old vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

 may be needed to sustain a single larva (Sands and Scott, 1997). The fifth (final) instar larva may ringbark the stem of its host as in other Ornithoptera, however there are no records in literature to sustain this. Pre-pupal larvae usually move away from their host plants to pupate, as larvae can be cannabalistic. The Pupae are suspended in typical Papilionid fashion by crotchets at the end of their abdomen and a girdle extending around the thorax

Thorax

The thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.-In tetrapods:...

 and require a protected site to survive winter. Ornithoptera richmondia is also the only birdwing known to enter a true diapause; artificial introduction of other Ornithoptera species to within the range of O. richmondia could interfere with this mechanism.

Predators of the immature stages of O. richmondia include parasitic wasps, predatory mites (Erythraeidae) and some rainforest birds.

Adult biology

Adult Richmond Birdwings are very strong fliers usually active in the early morning and near dusk, when they can be easily observed feeding on flowers such as Lantana (Lantana camara), although Eucalypt and Melaleuca flowers are also utilised. Observations of O. richmondia at other times of the day can lead to false impressions of their rarity, as the species can be locally abundant, albeit in small areas. Females are often observed some distance from their habitats and a migration of sorts has been noted in the QLD-NSW border ranges following years of exceptional rainfall. Such migrations allow populations of this species to establish in highland habitats over summer, although they die out over winter due to cold.
Birdwing butterflies are extremely elegant fliers, using their forewings to generate most of the power for flight. These are moved in almost a circular arc, while the hindwings act almost as a tailplane. Birdwings of the genus Troides fly in a similar manner. If disturbed, their flight becomes very erratic, essentially a series of skips and hops weaving in and out of foliage. They typically fly high in the rainforest canopy, descending only to feed or oviposit on hostplants.
Males routinely establish territories along creeks and in rainforest clearings and periodically patrol them during the day, again being most active at dawn and dusk. Courtship is elaborate, with the male initially chasing after the female before hovering above to douse her in pheremones from his androconial brush, a large row of hairs along the anal fold of the hindwing. Females not receptive to such overtures will avoid mating by remaining immobile and preventing the male from settling and pairing with her.

Taxonomic status

The taxonomic status of O. richmondia is still contested and molecular studies are required to establish its relationship with O. euphorion and O. priamus. Ornithoptera richmondia was initially described as Amphrisius australis by Swainson in 1851, and described a second time as Papilio richmondia by Gray in 1853. An application needs to be made to the ICZN to suppress A. australis, as richmondia has been the most commonly used epiphet since either publication. Since its initial descriptions, O. richmondia has commonly been treated as a subspecies of the widespread Priam's birdwing (O. priamus). Although Zeuner suggested that O. richmondia may represent a distinct species from examination of the male genitalia, he continued to regard it as a subspecies of O. priamus. Based on Zeuner's argument, D'Abrera (1975) treated O. richmondia as a full species, although this arrangement was not accepted by Haugum & Low (1971). Nonetheless, D'Abrera's treatment of O. richmondia as a distinct species has been followed by most Australian authors since (e.g. Common & Waterhouse 1981, Hancock 1983, 1991; Parsons 1996a, 1996b and Hancock & Orr 1997, Braby 2000). Interestingly, many non-Australian authors (e.g. Otani & Kimura 1998, von Knotgen 1997, Schaffler 2001, Deslisle 2004) continue to treat O. richmondia as a subspecies of O. priamus, although none cite any of the above Australian studies in their works. The most recent and robust taxonomic assessment of O. richmondia is by Edwards, Newland and Regan (2001) who afford this taxon full specific status, albeit as a species of Troides Hubner.

External links

• Ornithoptera richmondia at Ngypal as a subspecies of Ornithoptera priamus
• Queensland Government Environmental site
• Queensland Government fact sheet
• http://entom.customer.netspace.net.au/FirstBirdwing.html describes collection of this species by a young collector in the 1960s.